March Artists in Residence Readings and Open Studios

Sally Strom – Portland, OR
Hi, gal sal here, a salty Oregon Coasty that grew up in a Bar. I’d sit in front of the Sea Hag selling stinky clamshell earrings, glued agate people, Japanese glass floats, and anything else that washed ashore. For excitement we’d watch the “Trailer Sailors” boats literally sink as they tried to enter the “World Smallest Navigable Harbor”. Ahhhh, Depoe Bay; where Jack Nicholson took the boat out in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. Yep, he drank at the Sea Hag too.

Perhaps thats why my unconventional viewpoint encompasses a multitude of mediums to tell a story. Ive been a figurative painter for decades. I learned about censorship at age 8, when I tried to get photographs of my nude Barbie doll in action that I took with my 50-cent camera. The developer refused to give them to me. Hey, Ken wasn’t even around then.

Painting will always be a component of my art; I need the yummy frosting of paint sliding across a page, the energized brushstroke. I transfer this tactile sensitivity to my video work. I use whatever art medium the work asks of me to deepen the experience of the project.

Technology is what I needed to dive into for my continuing project WWII Stories: Dropping Like Flies. The need was obvious and technology didnt take long to seduce me. It is perhaps the longest marriage I’ll ever experience.

Collaboration and communication have always been strong component of my work. The WWII installation embodies all of this for me: Video, Painting, Memorabilia, Skins, Collaborative Writing, Performance and/or about anything that can be thrown in (and often times taken back out) of the pot to stir the emotions.

If the work promotes a diversified dialogue, then its a success. www.sstrom.com

Casandra Lopez – San Bernardino, CA
Casandra was raised in Southern California’s Inland Empire and is Chicana, Cahuilla, Luiseño and Tongva. She has been selected by the School of Advanced Research to be their 2013 Indigenous writer in residence. Her work can be found or is forthcoming in various literary journals such as Potomac Review, Hobart, Acentos Review, Weber–Contemporary West, and Unmanned Press. She is a founding editor of the journal As/Us: A Space For Women Of The World.

Klaus Hu – Berlin, Germany
Born in 1963, Klaus Hu is a Visual Artist living and working in Berlin. Since 1985 he has worked across different media in studio-based arts (photography/painting), research, and for site-specific calls. He received a fellowship for photography from the Berlin Senate and took part in national and international site-specific competitions like MAXXI Rome, Sharjah Biennale and German Parliament (Marie Elisabeth Lüders competition). He runs a studio in Berlin and also collaborates in group exhibitions, that challenge the notion of identity and transformation. He has recently published 3 books.

In his earlier career, he took part in several international video festivals, like JVC Japan, special merit award, WRO WROCLAW, Poland, and ONE MINUTE Sao Paulo. His early videos STILL RUN were premiered at CINEMA ARSENAL in Berlin. Some of his STUDIOWORKS are in private collections.

He studied anthropology, germanic and romance literature at University Heidelberg, 1982/83. Studies in stage-design, photography and video,at UdK / University of the arts, Berlin 1985/91 at Achim Freyer and Marcel Odenbach. Studies in multimedia and cultural studies at UdK / University of the Arts, Berlin, 1998/99 at Katharina Sieverding. And curatorial training at UdK / University of the Arts in 2011 / certificate.

Victor Ekpuk – Alexandria, VA
Victor Ekpuk is a Nigerian-born contemporary artist, currently based in Washington, DC. His art began as an exploration of nsibidi “traditional” graphics and writing systems in Nigeria from which he has developed a style of mark making that is the interplay of art and writing. Ekpuk’s work embraces a wider spectrum of meaning that is rooted in African and global contemporary art discourses. His art reflects his experiences as a global artist and subject matter of his work deals with the human condition explained through themes that are both universal and specific: family, gender, politics, culture and Identity.

Ekpuk has had numerous exhibitions and residencies in Europe, Africa, and the United States. His works are in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African Art, the Newark Museum, and the World Bank, among others.